Judge denies Manhattan DA’s request to block subpoena of ex-prosecutor

A federal judge has sided with House Republicans and denied Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s request to block a subpoena for the district attorney and members of his office to testify over their investigation into former President Donald Trump.

Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil’s ruling Wednesday clears the way for Bragg’s former Assistant District Attorney Mark Pomerantz, who resigned last year, to be interviewed in private Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee.

“The subpoena was issued with a ‘valid legislative purpose’ in connection with the ‘broad’ and ‘indispensable’ congressional power to ‘conduct investigations,'” the judge wrote. “Mr. Pomerantz must appear for the congressional deposition. No one is above the law.”

“Today’s decision shows that Congress has the ability to conduct oversight and issue subpoenas to people like Mark Pomerantz, and we look forward to his deposition before the judiciary committee,” Russell Dye, spokesperson for House judiciary committee chairman Jim Jordan, said in a statement Wednesday.

The district attorney’s office did not make an immediate comment but filed an appeal Wednesday evening. Pomerantz has also appealed.

Bragg sued Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, last week in federal court for interfering with his prosecution of Trump for political reasons, as Jordan filed an opposition to the lawsuit and maintained any political motivation was with Bragg.

“The court does not endorse either side’s agenda,” Vyskocil wrote in her 25-page ruling. “The sole question before the court at this time is whether Bragg has a legal basis to quash a congressional subpoena that was issued with a valid legislative purpose. He does not.”

In her ruling Wednesday, the judge also blasted Bragg’s 50-page lawsuit.

“The first 35 pages of the complaint have little to do with the subpoena at issue and are nothing short of a public relations tirade against former President and current presidential candidate Donald Trump,” the judge wrote.

Jordan has subpoenaed Pomerantz to give testimony about the district attorney’s investigation into Trump and how federal funds were used by Bragg’s office.

The investigation led to the former president’s 34-felony count indictment last month. Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges at an arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Court on April 4.

Pomerantz wrote a book following his resignation last year, which detailed an earlier grand jury probe into Trump that did not lead to charges.
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